100 of 103 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Dark Slayer twists the series' formula into Something different but something good - -, September 1, 2009
Deviating a bit from the normal formula of her other 'Dark' Carpathian books, Feehan's Dark Slayer was a unique entry into the popular long running series and ended up being one of my favorites of Feehan's more recent offerings. Though fans who live for Feehan's uber alpha males may be disappointed, I really liked long time series villain Razvan as he takes his turn in the spotlight. That Feehan decided to give us an atypical leading man is just as well because leading lady, vampire slayer Ivory Malinov, was an atypical leading lady as well and wouldn't have fit as well with some of the more dominating and arrogant of the Carpathians. And another part of what made Feehan's latest offering so good was that that she gave us a starring pair who have both had enough pain and suffering in their interesting backstories, and in their experiences with family members turning to the darkside, to add greater depth to both of the characters and their relationship.
Other things I really liked: Lots of cameos of old starring pairs are worked in thoughout the story and there were some really cool aspects to Ivory's wolf pack and her magical connection to the wolves. I also liked that Feehan waited longer to consumate the physical part of Razvan and Ivory's pairing, allowing Razvan and Ivory to work through some issues instead of forcing it - and, after a gazillion other books in this series, I had been starting to feel I feel as if I had read all of the love scenes many times before, so having less of them here than normal worked better for me and in them Feehan used a lighter touch with Razvan which made them feel fresher too.
My nits: Yet another chauvinistic stubborn effort to `protect' a `helpless' woman by Gregori. I found his attempt to force Ivory's acceptance of the Carpathians' aid frustrating - though once Gregori came to understand Ivory's power, he did give her the respect she deserves. I realise that some readers enjoy them, but there were way too many spell-poems for me (I mostly skipped over these and the Carpathian dialog too, I am just too impatient and these slowed the story down for me - I just 'had' to find out what happened next). It also bothered me a bit that Ivory seemed somewhat diminished when she discovered her feminity - she started out as a really strong independant character, a true survivor and more than competent at slaying ancient vampires and unraveling the evil mega-villain Xavier's spells - and I didn't like that she ended up doubting herself with Razvan. But even with that nit, she was still a great heroine.
So is anyone besides me wondering how long is Feehan going to be able keep this series going? There still several stories I've been waiting for, in this book even more potential leading men hunters are introduced, and I really don't see the overall story arc building up to a big finish quite yet. But hey, I'm not the only one still willing to shell out the big bucks and preorder the hardbacks, so who knows - maybe if we're lucky this series will be as immortal as Feehan's Carpathians themselves.
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47 of 50 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Consumed in one evening...well done!!!, September 3, 2009
This review is from: Dark Slayer (Carpathian) (Kindle Edition)
Typically, as a popular series advances the intrinsic center "charm" seems to fragment as the author tries valiantly to keep up his or her excitement in the story. (Uh, BDB ring a bell?)
In "Dark Slayer"...Christine Feehan comes back to what entranced us in the beginning....a species simply trying to survive. Granted these males are gorgeous, sexy and come built-in with speeches that bind a womans' soul to theirs. They are gut-wrenchingly honorable..fighting vampires who were once the same as they were: Carpathian warriors.
In "Dark Slayer", Ms. Feehan brings us back to this essential problem but twists it as the villian of several novels, Razvan the mage/Dragonseeker is shown to be a victim of an "immortal" wizard. Zavier, the ageless evil has to have Carpathian blood, preferably a family member, to continue his his seemingly endless persecution of Carpathians. Zavier wants them all to die in a revenge-ridden quest for absolute power.
Zavier captures and victimizes his grandson, Razvan, for hundreds of years, starving him and taking over his body to impregnate psychic women for the babies that carry a Carpathian blood supply.
Zavier used Razvan's body in an earlier novel (Dark Demon) to attempt murder on Razvans' sister Natalya.
After the latest destruction of one of Zaviers' evil labratories, Razvan escapes into a blizzard half-naked, and starved for blood. Half mad with guilt and unable to process the searing evil of his life, Razan wants to die. So he wanders off into the woods collapsing in the snow....and waits for the morning sun.
Instead, another legend of the Carpathians: Ivory the presumed-dead sister of the evil Brother Malinov stumbles across Razvans' body after a lengthy battle with vampires.
Hundreds of years earlier, Ivory was attacked and cut into pieces when she was betrayed to vampires by Zavier. Happily for Ivory, the vampires neglected to remove her heart...so the pieces of her body lay in a field while wolves chewed into her legs and arms. Ivory manages to put herself back together with the help of Mother Earth and, after lying in the earth for three hundred years Ivory begins her dreadful life's mission to eradicate the evil Zavier by unraveling his spells and fighting vampires. She becomes another legend, the Dark Slayer.
Seeing Razvan's crumpled body causes her great pain because she never dreamed of family or children. She was always alone except for the wolves she saved from death by sharing her blood and converting them to Carpathians. Yet, she recognizes Razvan's importance to her...because he is the other half of her soul.
The love story is touching and well-linked to the story line. Familiar Carpathians and vampires return in this book. Skyler and Dimitri are still fighting their attraction now that Skyler is seventeen. The Dragonseeker "Aunts" are still healing in their earthen beds. Savannah gives birth to her twins. Mikail and Raven are pregnant again. All of the characters are consistent with prior novels but show real personal growth.
I won't give away anymore....because this book deserves a thorough read.
I rate this one up there with the first book, "Dark Prince".
This book is recommended as a "Keeper".
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51 of 58 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Dark slayer lost in translation, September 2, 2009
I am still reading the book and about halfway there. It's OK but not my favorite. I'm losing patience with Ms. Feehan's tendancy to delve so extensively into the carpathian language. I find that more of a distraction than anything else. I enjoyed her books more when she didn't do that. She seems to delve deeper and deeper with each book she writes in the dark series. Why does she feel this is so important to the story line...it isn't to me. In this book over 30 pages are used at the end for the Carpathian language index. That was a total waste, I'm not bothering to read that. I feel at some point she just may write an entire dark series book in the carpathian language and expect her readers to learn the language to decifer the book. This book has less romance and more violence and gore with a lot of pages wasted with reading lines first in carpathian language and then in English. Are these just page fillers? I think she should have edited this out. Who cares? Just stick with the story and stop trying to introduce a new language to the readers. I'm not interested in learning carpathian language, I just want to enjoy a good story written by her without having to learn the language to do it. I was a bit disappointed in this book but I'm still a big fan and I like her a lot. I'll be glad when dimitri and skyler get together, I've been waiting on that storyline for a long time.
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